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Strike

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Anyone ever been on strike? How was it?

Our contract expired April 1 this year and we are now in a legal strike position as of 12:01am this friday. Management is preparing for a full blown battle to the death from what it appears. They are meeting today and tomorrow and if no agreement is reached they apparently have everything planned to flip the switch at midnight tomorrow night and lock us out. :sad:

From what I understand, the key areas are increased workloads on workers, lack of support from management, not enough sick time(which I don't understand because I still had a week of sick time left to use at the end of last year that I had to give up)
 

REDDOGTWO

Unemployed Veg. Peddler
SUPER Site Supporter
Ask the people at the beet growers in ND-MN, they were locked out for a year and a half, only about half of them came back. This is what I remember, old news now. they would not sign over some dumb things which were quite petty in my mind. Guess the union there showed then who was boss. Plants ran quite well with replacement workers.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
GroomerGuy is a govt. worker I believe. Plus Ontario is a "liberal" province.

Enjoy the vacation - you'll be taken care of eventually.
 

Leni

Active member
It seems to me that every time a union strikes these days the workers lose big time. You might get a raise but how long will it take to make up the lost wages? With the economy the way it is management won't have any difficulty finding replacement workers.
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
I was out for 110 days in 1979. I did not vote to strike and I did not vote to go back either. Watched the Cat plant in York,Pa. stay on strike for over a year. They gained nothing and within 2 years Cat shut that plant down. They turned half of it into a non-union warehouse and sold the rest. Hope you have a nest egg put back to hold you over for a while. I was in good shape financially when we went out and had paid my mortgage and other stuff ahead by 6 months. Did some excavating while off and sure did not want to go back to a hot factory that summer.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
GroomerGuy is a govt. worker I believe. Plus Ontario is a "liberal" province.

Enjoy the vacation - you'll be taken care of eventually.

Not a government worker. I work in social services but not for the government. And the southern part of the province is liberal. Most people up here have come to their senses and turned against the liberals and conservatives.

This strike isn't about wages. It's more about being treated unfairly by the management and seeing services being taken away from the families and children we support due to "lack of funding" meanwhile all the managers get big fat bonuses. It's also about them cutting back on workers meanwhile increasing the number of managers. It's about them Increasing our workloads and expectations being greater on us without getting the support we need to effectively provide services to the families and kids. Our agency currently provides various services to over 700 families and children.
 

Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
Anyone ever been on strike? How was it?

Our contract expired April 1 this year and we are now in a legal strike position as of 12:01am this friday. Management is preparing for a full blown battle to the death from what it appears. They are meeting today and tomorrow and if no agreement is reached they apparently have everything planned to flip the switch at midnight tomorrow night and lock us out. :sad:

From what I understand, the key areas are increased workloads on workers, lack of support from management, not enough sick time(which I don't understand because I still had a week of sick time left to use at the end of last year that I had to give up)

It seems to me that every time a union strikes these days the workers lose big time. You might get a raise but how long will it take to make up the lost wages? With the economy the way it is management won't have any difficulty finding replacement workers.


I have never been involved in a strike, but had friends that were. As Leni notes, they never made back what they lost
while they were out. If the issues are so oppressive that you have to strike in an effort resolve them, then you would seem
to have no choice, but understand that barring a really fast settlement of your grievances, you'll never recover the money
the strike will cost you in lost wages.

 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Not a government worker. I work in social services but not for the government. And the southern part of the province is liberal. Most people up here have come to their senses and turned against the liberals and conservatives.

This strike isn't about wages. It's more about being treated unfairly by the management and seeing services being taken away from the families and children we support due to "lack of funding" meanwhile all the managers get big fat bonuses. It's also about them cutting back on workers meanwhile increasing the number of managers. It's about them Increasing our workloads and expectations being greater on us without getting the support we need to effectively provide services to the families and kids. Our agency currently provides various services to over 700 families and children.

I strongly suspect your agency is government funded through some form of contract. Is your strike with the agency management? Then you may have a chance. Basically, the government will pressure the management to settle with the union in order to prevent a loss of services or breech of contract.

As a worker grunt, you will need to tighten your belt and ride it out as best you can. It all depends on how long you can hold out.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yes. We are government funded and it is against the agency management. IF we do go on strike, I doubt very highly that it will be a long one.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well....not sure if its good news or not. No lockout today as what was originally suspected they would do. They presented an offer to the union yesterday in the 11th hour just before the deadline. We vote on it next week. Not sure what is in the offer but the union is recomending to reject it. We shall see what it says. Most everyone I've talked to say that if things can remain pretty much the same as last contract they'll sign.
 

Leni

Active member
It could be that the government is putting pressure on management to avoid the strike. That would not surprise me at all.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Just a quick update. The second set of strike vote results came back with 71% in favor of striking. Unfortunately I was unable to vote as I was in Toronto the day we voted. They would not let me vote by proxy either. So we are set to walk the picket lines starting 8am monday morning. If given the chance to vote, I would not have been one of the 71% in favor. I'm a little ticked off by the whole thing to say the least and plan on letting my union know where I stand on it. Basically it boils down to a bunch of lazy women who want more money and don't want to work for it. They want increased wages but didn't like the company's proposed 0% yr 1, 1.5% yr 2, .5% yr 3 wage increase. They also want reduced caseloads but don't realize that this is not set by our agency but the standards are provincial which means all the other agencies are in the same boat and the number of cases each worker has to work with is province wide.

As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of the union at the moment. In my opinion, unions are only good nowdays to protect the lazy ass d-f ers who don't want to work for their money. I've never been a strong supporter of any union I've been part of. This one just takes the cake.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
My wife is in the teachers union.

She refused to strike when the union went out on strike.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Day 1 of the strike is over. No end in sight. About 250 of us were out all day marching around the block outside the office and handing out pamphlets. No clue yet as to how long this will be.
 

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
Have to agree with you about unions mostly being there to protect the lazy and under-performers. We have a grocery chain that the grocers union has been trying to get their foot in the door for two decades. They have convinced some of the workers to walk out and to picket the store near my home, and these geniuses have been working on their tans for at least two months. I just laugh every time I see them waving their "Unfair to Workers" signs at passing motorists. We just smile and continue to shop there.

FWIW, I hate unions.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Never on strike. We had a no strike clause with binding arbitration. Final decision by the NLRB. We won a few, lost a few. After 40 years I look back and think it was very fair over all. Of course, we were high voltage electrical construction. No room for slackers like you see so much of today. Most of these asswipes would not even make it to coffee break on the crews I was a part of. You were expected to know your shit, perform and watch out for your partner when working on live distribution.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Never been on strike although in my early, idealistic 20's I was a union shop steward. I had many dealings with management as a representative of our members and many dealings with the union heirarchy on a regional and national level. It took a while but I finally realized that the union at the higher levels had no real interest in the workers they were supposed to represent. They were much more interested in furthering their political agenda and maintaining their own highly paid, comfortable existance and the members were simply a means for them to achieve that.

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time for unions and am extremely cynical of their objectives. Would I go on strike? No, I don't think so and refused to do so on two occasions but that's a whole other story.

I've never seen a union do anything that was a direct benefit to their members. They're an anachronisn. Something that was desperately needed sixty or a hundred years ago but something that today has outlived it's usefulness and relevancy.
 

jimbo

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Day 1 of the strike is over. No end in sight. About 250 of us were out all day marching around the block outside the office and handing out pamphlets. No clue yet as to how long this will be.

Just curious, but if you do not want to strike and would have voted no, why are you walking the lines and handing out pamphlets?
 

Adillo303

Diesel Truck Fan
GOLD Site Supporter
Just curious, but if you do not want to strike and would have voted no, why are you walking the lines and handing out pamphlets?

If the union has a strike fund, he may have to do that to get strike pay. I could be wrong, that is the way it used to be.
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
I've been a part of some unions some I liked others I didn't I have found the larger unions generally are looking out for them self's. on the other hand some times they are necessary, especially where the government is concerned. they cant seem to get the idea if you want to attract talented workers they have to get wages comparable to the private sector. the first thing they do is to cut wages when budget cut's are necessary. you never see cut's in management when the shit hits the fan. the other thing is at one time your union dues helped pay for your retirement and health care along with some other services the union provided.in my opinion this is why they like Obama care they can get the federal government to provide a service that they used to provide to workers while they collect the same money in dues. I had an argument with a friend once about the unions he is very tea party and doesn't like they government involved in any thing yet he is also anti union. he wanted to know why he should have to see a union for help when he can recruit just the same I pissed him off when I reminded him of his tea party values and asked why the government should provide an employment agency for him (job service). just remember there are pro's and con's my experience is the larger the union the less they care about the worker. also where would we be with out a few checks and balances. i'm non union now and have no need to be my company understands to attract good workers they need a good compensation package and good work conditions.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Just curious, but if you do not want to strike and would have voted no, why are you walking the lines and handing out pamphlets?

If the union has a strike fund, he may have to do that to get strike pay. I could be wrong, that is the way it used to be.

Precisely. $250 a week is better than $0 a week right now. I won't be doing it for long. I'm just biting my tongue and putting in my time. I do agree with some of the things the union is fighting against. Others, not so much. If things aren't looking up by next week, I'm starting to hand out resumes for other positions.

Might be a blessing this week actually that we're on strike. It's giving me lots of time to get the new house ready and move things over.
 

Kane

New member
I've been a part of some unions some I liked others I didn't I have found the larger unions generally are looking out for them self's. on the other hand some times they are necessary, especially where the government is concerned. they cant seem to get the idea if you want to attract talented workers they have to get wages comparable to the private sector.
Say what? Generally speaking, guvment workers have compensation packages well beyond those of the private sector. WTF? Particularly for those workers that actually have marketable skill sets.
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
not around here I make between 10 and 15 dollars an hour more than my counterparts working fore the state.
 

jwstewar

Active member
I left public and went private several years back. I figure I'm making about $25k more per year than my counter parts that are still there, plus I have a better retirement plan (yes we still have one) and also matching contributions on 401k. They recently talked to me about going back, I wouldn't take that size of pay cut.
 
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